Many a myth has been discussed about the "superhuman" power that a grandmaster holds over the chessboard. Amateur players tend to look at us GMs as untouchable geniuses that cannot put a foot wrong when shuffling our pieces about. I am now going...
Every chess player knows about two inevitable opening catastrophes: scholar's mate and the Fried Liver Attack. I still remember my shock when in one of my first tournaments I played what looked like reasonable moves and yet the resulting position ...
Errors. Sometimes we notice them (or think we notice them), and sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we learn from our mistakes, and in many cases we are oblivious to them and, as a result, repeat these invisible horrors over and over. Most commo...
The January 1962 issue of "Chess Review" featured an article written by John Frederick Harbeson. The article was a reprint of one that had appeared in "The Germantowne Crier." The author was a prominent Philade...
Below are the official rules and format of Chess.com's Grandmaster Blitz Battle Championship. For the full list of players in the 2016 GM Battle Championship, click here. By accepting the invitation to play, players acknowledge they have read an...
© 2016, José Diaz Links Interview with José Diaz José Diaz Official Website
When we analyzed "An Opening Line For Masters" last week, I chose GM Igor Zaitsev as our opening guide for a reason. It is difficult to name another chess player who introduced that many absolutely paradoxical opening novelties. Today ...
Should You Castle Early? Question: Chess.com member scmooney asked, “You stress castling early. In my experience I find that sometimes castling takes the king right into an ambush. In your lecture on attacking a castled king, Black’s...
The following is a reprint of a charming article composed by Al Horowitz in "Chess Review," Nov. 1953. Of course, this version has been updated to Algebraic Notation with the digital supplanting the physical. Al Horow...
Many celebrities enjoy playing chess. Howard Stern, the famous radio host, is a confirmed chess fanatic. Rainn Wilson, the actor who played Dwight Schrute on the long-running NBC series The Office, got the chance to play the world chess c...
© 2016, José Diaz Links Interview with José Diaz José Diaz Official Website
In round four of the recently-concluded 2015 Qatar Masters, I found myself across the board from a rather obscure individual known as Vladimir Kramnik (yes, I am being sarcastic). As the chief arbiter made the usual pre-game announcements, I recal...
Last week we analyzed a line that could be a decent opening weapon for club players. As you remember, unlike the openings played by super-grandmasters, it didn't require any special opening knowledge and could be learned in one minute. The obvio...
By Maret Thorpe. Photo: Tae Moon [Reprinted with permission of the author and US Chess.] “I’m so honored to have made it on to the first iteration of the Top Women Age 50 and Over! I hope these newly added lists encourage mo...
Openings That Lead to a Draw Question: Chess.com member jos2001 wrote, “I’m a 1076-ranked player who wants to know the best openings to draw.” Answer: Though various openings are known to be drawish at the master level (and u...
The Cunningham Defense in the King's Gambit Accepted begins 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 Be7. White moves the Bishop to give his King a place to go with 4. Bc4. If Black continues with the threatened 4... Bh4+ ...
Every chess game begins with an opening, which means that when reviewing your own games, it's important to analyze what happened in the first few moves. Here are three ways to improve your openings: Evaluate the outcome of the opening. Did you...
Don’t call it a comeback; I’ve been here for years. In October I played in Millionaire Chess, my first international tournament in nearly two years. It wasn’t a triumphant return lik...
There are certain opening variations in chess which can be labeled "for top players only." The most obvious example would be the Berlin Variation of the Ruy Lopez. But club players shouldn't be jealous since there are also opening variations "fo...
It's been a long time coming, but a brand-new version of Chess.com is finally ready to take online chess to a new level—and take your game to new heights. This new version (v3) has been our top priority for two years, and&n...
I’ve gone out of my way to write articles about the importance of balance; everyone needs both tactical and positional/strategic skills (you also need endgame skills, but at the moment we will concentrate on tactics and strategy). To add a...
Chess.com is launching a new online blitz and bullet chess championship series, with the biggest payout in online history, and three of the world's top chess players have already signed on. THE CARLSEN-NAKAMURA FINAL WILL BE PLAYED 27 OCTOB...
Some time ago we discussed in this article the identical positions that can happen in endgames. I concluded the article with the statement "Deja vu is good for your chess!" Which of course means that the knowledge of certain positions, tec...
© 2016, José Diaz Links Interview with José Diaz José Diaz Official Website
